Recent developments in satellite communications have increased availability and reduced service costs, thereby making such technology more accessible to consumers. Satellite communication systems allow consumers to access voice and data services from virtually any global location. Such accessibility can be beneficial for consumers who are located in, or must travel to, areas that cannot be reliably serviced by normal voice and/or data communication systems.
Satellite communication systems utilize coverage beams to service specific geographical regions of a coverage area. Conventional coverage beams are often generated in the form of geometric-like shapes that are arranged to physically overlay the geographic coverage area. Thus, multiple coverage beams must often be combined in order to service the entire coverage area. Coverage beams can be defined based on various factors including, density of user terminals, available frequency, etc. User terminals within the coverage area optimize communication by selecting appropriate configuration settings (e.g., up/downlink frequencies, power, etc.) based on their assigned coverage beams.
Successful and reliable communication between user terminals and the satellite requires proper operation of various aspects of the satellite communication system. For example, the beams must be properly formed by either a Ground Based Beam Former (GBBF) that is part of the gateway or an On-Board Beam Former (OBBF), and satellite orbital data (e.g., Ephemeris data) must be processed to compensate for delay and Doppler correction. Furthermore, forward/return paths for both control and traffic channels must be properly configured so that the user terminals and gateway are capable of properly receiving and processing transmission bursts from the satellite.
Satellite communication systems can be subject to “silent” failures within individual beams if any of the operational aspects fail completely or partially. Oftentimes, such silent (or localized) failures are not detected or easily detectable, because they only affect a portion of the coverage area and not the entire system. The satellite service provider will only become aware of these silent failures after sufficient consumer complaints regarding lack of service within a particular beam coverage area. Consumers can quickly become dissatisfied because of the higher costs associated with satellite communications relative to mobile or wired communications. Based on the foregoing, it would be beneficial if failures, such as silent failures, could be quickly detected and addressed without the need to receive user complaints.